Cleaning out the Hametz (Leaven)

This post is excerpted from Rabbi Dr. Julie Danan's book The Jewish Parents Almanac.

Spiritually, the hametz has been explained as symbolic of puffy human pride and ego, while the flat, simple matzah represents humble faith in God. The liberation of Pesah is really the

freedom to serve God rather than a false taskmaster: "Let my people go, that they may serve me." We become free not for selfish purposes, but to live the life of a "holy nation."

As hands clean together and the house is transformed, spirits can awaken with the spring to new learning, new growth, new directions, and new opportunities to serve. Can we do this without the demanding physical mitzvot, the concrete rituals? Of course... sometimes, when we're inspired, when circumstances are right. The genius of Judaism is to institutionalize this chance for liberation into an annual process. Moreover, the traditional Passover preparations, followed by the seder and the holiday week, create a vehicle, a kli, for passing on important teachings to the next generation.

Hametz: A Lot of Hot Air

Before we can observe Passover, we must rid our house of hametz, all the fluffy leavened foods. Although a certain amount of drudgery is involved in the task, it is also often exhilarating to give the house a thorough cleaning, to throw out lots of old junk we don't really need.

The puffy hametz could symbolize all the "hot air" in our lives, all the overinflated business that takes up so much of our time and energy. Just as the crumbs of bread may often be found in every nook and cranny of the house, "Crumbs" of overblown nonessentials may have invaded every facet of our lives.

Cleaning out hametz and subsisting on matzah the most basic food -- gives us a chance to reflect on the essentials versus the extraneous parts of our lives. Are important things like the family crowded out by "hot air" tasks?

Sometimes we must clean out a lot of fluff, even to live on "the bread of bare basics," in order to be really liberated.